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Post by dem bones on Aug 9, 2011 18:44:35 GMT
Roger Johnson - A Ghostly Crew: Tales from the Endeavour (Sarob Press, 2001)
The Scarecrow (Ghosts & Scholars #6, 1984) The Watchman (Best Of Ghosts & Scholars #6, 1984) The Interruptions [originally The Dog (A Graven Image and Other Essex Ghost Stories, Haunted Library, 1985) The Wall-Painting (Saints and Relics, Haunted Library, 1983) The Searchlight (A Graven Image and Other Essex Ghost Stories, Haunted Library, 1985) The Taking The Melodrama (Ghosts & Scholars #10, 1988) The Prize (Ghosts & Scholars #11, 1989) The Breakdown The Pool The Clues (Spectral Tales #2, 1989) The Night Before Christmas (Chillers for Christmas, 1989) The Soldier (Mystery for Christmas, 1990) The Souvenir All Hallows #6, 1994[/i] Sweet Chiming Bells (Shivers for Christmas, 1995)
Don't have a copy of this book, have never even seen one, but am an admirer of Roger Johnson's work on the strength of the dozen stories read of his in various publications, nine of them included in this collection.
The Scarecrow: Related by George Cobbett as an old man by way of explaining his refusal ever to return to a certain Oxfordshire village.
George and his friend Lionel Ager of the Folklore Society were Cambridge undergraduates when they visited the village of Saxton Lovell on the outskirts of Banbury for the first and last time. At The Belchamp Arms they heard the charming story of the Squire Richard Belchamp, rake, reputed necromancer and total bastard who, a century ago, was done to death on the standing stones in Nick's Meadow, known locally as Hell's Gate. Belchamp had been surprised by the father of a girl he was in the process of molesting (he was caught committing "a rather horrid act" as jolly farmer Harry Arnold puts it) who beat him to death on the spot. The dying man uttered a curse. "Hell shall lie within your farm, and your filthy scarecrow shall be it's gate man."
The father received a surprisingly lenient sentence for the murder and was soon back tending his farm, though maybe he'd have been better hanged. one morning his body was found burned to death before the stones, the scarecrow seemingly having uprooted itself and crossed the field to get a better look at the corpse.
Lionel Ager found Farmer Arnold's story delightful and resolved to camp the night in the field on Midsummers Eve. George, who didn't much care for the look on the demon scarecrow's turnip face, cried off and the Farmer only granted Lionel access to his land on condition he keep a rifle at his side. While the young man kept vigil at the stones. back in his bed at The Balchamp Arms, George Cobbett suffered the most appalling nightmare ...
As was the case with Ramsey Campbell's In The Bag, the judges of The Times Ghost Story Competition didn't consider this story worthy a place in the resulting anthology. No disrespect to Sir Christopher Lee, Patricia Highsmith and Kingsley Amis but they are mad!
The Night Before Christmas: Related by Hilary Falkner as an old woman by way of explanation of her loathing of Christmas.
Throughout childhood, Hilary's best friend, Diana, was plagued by a nightmare so traumatic that she could never remember it on awakening. All this changed when the girls were fourteen and they spent Christmas at Woodham Priors, near Malden, Essex, as guests of a classmate. As part of the festive merriment, the host, Richard, has arranged for the Mummers to call on Christmas day, but the fat old jolly Santa is so reminiscent of the man in her nightmares that Diana lets out a shriek and faints dead away. As it turns out, there's no malice in kindly old Uncle William/ Santa whatsoever, but his ancestor, Marcus Ridler was a different kettle of fish. Ridler, a lecher and sadist, was done to death in 1839 and such was his unpopularity among the locals that no-one ever stood trial for his murder.
When they reach eighteen, Diana and Hilary returns to Woodham for what will be their last Christmas together ....
The Melodrama: The ghost of a recently murdered girl manifests onstage during a 1910 performance of The Murder of Maria Marten at the Corn Exchange, Colchester, starring Cain Foxborough, "one of the last of the once numerous race of barnstormers" whose company "specialises in innocent, old fashioned 'blood and thunder.'" At the play's climax, with Squire Corber about to swing from the gallows, the trapdoor opens and two figures fall through. Foxborough calms the audience while the police investigate. They find one actor dead having hit his head in on a trunk which has burst open to reveal ....
The Wall Painting: Welford St. Paul, a small parish in Essex. The wall-painting is discovered during renovations to the church and antiquarian Howard Faragher is invited to examine it. Eventually he uncovers the entire mural, a medieval study depicting the controversial St. Tosti who, reputedly, trafficked with devils and inexplicably vanished mid-sermon in 1120. Something else: a shadowy form stood next to the fake Saint appears to be moving.
Faragher is lured to his doom off scene and when next the narrator scrutinises the unhallowed masterpiece, he discovers to his horror that the spectral figure now bears the face of his missing friend.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 25, 2011 13:16:34 GMT
MX Publishing has just made available In the Night, In the Dark: Tales of Ghosts and Less Welcome Visitors by Roger Johnson. Reprinting the contents of A Ghostly Crew: Tales from the Endeavour (Sarob Press, 2001), it includes excellent Jamesian stories like “The Wall-Painting” and “The Searchlight” (both originally published by Rosemary Pardoe’s Haunted Library). Other stories are newly collected, some of them Lovecraftian. Although Amazon gives the publication date as November 30th, I’ve just been informed that my copy has been posted to me. Details can be found here: www.amazon.co.uk/Night--Tales-Ghosts-Welcome-Visitors/dp/1780920504/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319546508&sr=1-1
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Post by dem bones on Oct 25, 2011 22:12:43 GMT
Neat cover, too, thanks so much for putting us on to it, codex. is In the Night, In the Dark a faithful reprint of A Ghostly Crew or are there additional stories? Either way, will have to try get me a copy. Have not read one Roger Johnston story I didn't like.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 26, 2011 9:12:36 GMT
I got this information from Roger Johnson himself. The full contents of In the Night, In the Dark are: “Things that Go Bump in the Night” (A Ghostly Crew: Tales from the Endeavour) The Scarecrow The Watchman The Interruptions The Wall-Painting The Searchlight The Taking The Melodrama The Prize The Breakdown The Pool The Clues The Night Before Christmas The Soldier The Souvenir Sweet Chiming Bells “Things from Beyond” Aliah Warden The Dreaming City Custos Sanctorum Ishtaol From the Desert The Fool’s Tale The Man Who Inherited the World In Memoriam On Dead Gods “More Things in Heaven and Earth...” The Serpent’s Tooth Enigma Desideratum Love, Death and the Maiden “Oddities Investigated” — Tales from a Hero’s Casebook A Butcher’s Dozen: Tales in Verse
The second section is largely Lovecraftian material, and the third is an eclectic miscellany. The cover is by Jean Upton, Roger Johnson's wife. My copy was posted two days ago, so hopefully it arrives today. As in the case of every new book, I would recommend using Bookfinder.com for details of availability and the best price.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 26, 2011 21:55:48 GMT
I'd no idea Mr. Johnston had written Lovecraftian stuff! My first thought was that this must be his collected published works, but he also had a three pager, "As Our Rarer Monsters Are", in David Cowperthwaite & Jeffrey Dempsey small press magazine Dark Dreams. Not sure there can be many more?
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 28, 2011 9:29:18 GMT
I haven't read any of Roger Johnson's Lovecraftian stories before, so I know very little about them. I intend to read them first when my copy of In the Night, In the Dark arrives. (It was supposedly posted four days ago.) In any event, despite what it says on Amazon, according to the MX Publishing website, In the Night, In the Dark is now available.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Oct 31, 2011 10:31:54 GMT
I've received my copy of In the Night, in the Dark. In that "As Our Rarer Monsters Are" is included, renamed "The Serpent's Tooth", the book does seem to be the complete works.
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Post by paulfinch on Jan 6, 2012 14:03:54 GMT
Roger Johnson - A Ghostly Crew: Tales from the Endeavour (Sarob Press, 2001) The Scarecrow: Related by George Cobbett as an old man by way of explaining his refusal ever to return to a certain Oxfordshire village. George and his friend Lionel Ager of the Folklore Society were Cambridge undergraduates when they visited the village of Saxton Lovell on the outskirts of Banbury for the first and last time. At The Belchamp Arms they heard the charming story of the Squire Richard Belchamp, rake, reputed necromancer and total bastard who, a century ago, was done to death on the standing stones in Nick's Meadow, known locally as Hell's Gate. Belchamp had been surprised by the father of a girl he was in the process of molesting (he was caught committing "a rather horrid act" as jolly farmer Harry Arnold puts it) who beat him to death on the spot. The dying man uttered a curse. "Hell shall lie within your farm, and your filthy scarecrow shall be it's gate man." The father received a surprisingly lenient sentence for the murder and was soon back tending his farm, though maybe he'd have been better hanged. one morning his body was found burned to death before the stones, the scarecrow seemingly having uprooted itself and crossed the field to get a better look at the corpse. Lionel Ager found Farmer Arnold's story delightful and resolved to camp the night in the field on Midsummers Eve. George, who didn't much care for the look on the demon scarecrow's turnip face, cried off and the Farmer only granted Lionel access to his land on condition he keep a rifle at his side. While the young man kept vigil at the stones. back in his bed at The Balchamp Arms, George Cobbett suffered the most appalling nightmare ... As was the case with Ramsey Campbell's In The Bag, the judges of The Times Ghost Story Competition didn't consider this story worthy a place in the resulting anthology. No disrespect to Sir Christopher Lee, Patricia Highsmith and Kingsley Amis but they are mad! I totally agree. When I first heard about this, I thought it was a joke. The Times Anthology contains some quite decent tales, but none are as good as either The Scarecrow or In The Bag. And it wouldn't even have been a difficult decision. Those judges got it completley and utterly wrong - and that's not just my opinion, that's a fact.
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Post by Michael Connolly on Sept 23, 2019 13:05:10 GMT
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Post by helrunar on Sept 23, 2019 17:37:47 GMT
That's a great cover. I've never heard of this author. Thank you so much for posting this!
cheers, Helrunar
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elricc
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 100
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Post by elricc on Sept 23, 2019 20:32:55 GMT
I think Roger Johnson is much underated, have you read Ghostly Crew, Tales from the Endeavour.. I can't remember the name , but the tale about the Soldier wall painting? Scarecrow guarding the gate to hell... time for a re-read if I have forgotten so much I bought that booklet for a £1 of ebay many years ago.
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elricc
Devils Coach Horse
Posts: 100
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Post by elricc on Sept 23, 2019 20:38:43 GMT
I think Roger Johnson is much underated, have you read Ghostly Crew, Tales from the Endeavour.. I can't remember the name , but the tale about the Soldier wall painting? Scarecrow guarding the gate to hell... time for a re-read if I have forgotten so much I bought that booklet for a £1 of ebay many years ago. sorry hadn't read the beginning of the thread
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Post by Michael Connolly on Sept 25, 2019 12:59:55 GMT
In the Night, In the Dark (2011), the most complete of Roger Johnson's three collections, is readily available through Bookfinder.com etc. The best stories reprinted from his second Jamesian collection A Ghostly Crew: Tales from the Endeavour (2001) are "The Wall-Painting" and "The Searchlight".
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Post by dem bones on Oct 31, 2019 7:23:25 GMT
From the author's commentary, it appears most of the Tales from the Endeavour are revised versions of the stories published in G&S, Spectral Tales, Dark Dreams, et al. Readers of a sensitive disposition are advised that at least one of the following references Romf*rd.
The Breakdown: (Deep Things out of Darkness, 1987). Roger is driving fiancée Alison Myers home from a party when the car gives out between Navestock and Epping. After walking what seems like miles in near pitch dark they come upon the most welcome sight - a good old fashioned bobby. It's only when they get up close they realise there's something not quite right about his face ....
Ghost inspired by P.C. Gutteridge, murdered and cruelly disfigured by vicious car thieves at Stapleford Abbots in the early hours of 26 September 1927.
The Pool: (A. F. Kidd [ed.], Picatrix, 1992). George Cobbett, making his way home through Epping Forest after a hard night's drinking, encounters an old friend, Dick Morton, who killed himself five years ago. Dick, or that which has taken possession of his soul, entices George to leave life's misery behind, join him in death. All he need do is wade out deep in the Suicide Pool.
A couple of comedy interludes from the “More Things in Heaven and Earth...” miscellany.
Enigma: (Deep Things out of Darkness, 1987). Various theories and explanations offered in regard to the mysterious disappearance of Mr. Peter Francis Saltmarsh from The Bell & Horseshoe, Scrapfaggot Green on the night of 13 November 1977.
Desideratum: A Deal with the Devil entry. James Summers, who fancies himself a clever-clogs, bargains his soul in exchange for greater knowledge than God.
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Post by dem bones on Nov 1, 2019 7:40:18 GMT
The Prize: ( Ghosts & Scholars #11, 1989). Roy Plummer’s aunt, Penny, solves the treasure hunt set in the pages of Charles Device’s book, “Sorcerous” (a similar hunt to the one set by Kit Williams’ “Masquerade”) and is entitled to the silver reproduction of the Iron Age Celtic Gundestrup cauldron. The only problem is that she had found the answer by a sheer fluke and Dr Venetia Caracalla, who had solved the puzzle correctly, insists that she should be given the cauldron as her rightful prize. And, when Penny refuses, the nightmares begin. By the rules of the competition, Penny Carter won fair and square, but Dr. Venetia Caracalla refuses to accept the judges decision as final. Dr. Caracalla, a formidable Black Magician, publicly humiliates Penny during a light-hearted Radio 4 feature and offers her a derisory £100 for the cauldron which, she insists, will be hers. Tiring of the game, the Doctor sets Penny a cryptic puzzle, one she must solve within three days or face the direst consequences. R.J.'s Casting the Runes and he's located it in Tower Hamlets, God bless him. The Taking: ( Deep Things out of Darkness, 1987; Richard Dalby [ed.] Tales of Witchcraft, 1991). Terrifying experience of Robert Lovewell, artist, while staying at Abbotts Farm, N.W. Essex. A recurring nightmare sees him transported back to the late sixteenth century at the height of the witch trials as a young widow, Janet Fisher, is falsely accused by conniving neighbour Alice Rosemary and son, who have covetous eyes on her land. Janet duly hangs and is buried, minus a finger, on unconsecrated ground. Lovewell learns from County records (and certain works of Peter Haining) that, fifteen years later, his mother now dead, Thomas Rosemary made a clean breast of things at the Sheriff's office (no action was taken against him). Haunting ends when Lowell finds the bony finger and gives it Christian burial in Winstock churchyard. The Serpent's Tooth: (David Cowperthwaite & Jeff Dempsey [eds.] , Dark Dreams #5, 1987, as As Our Rarer Monsters Are). Dr. Leopold Meinster is finally successful in galvanising a patchwork creature comprised of human body parts but, tragically, he does no survive to celebrate his triumph. As related in a gory correspondence to Elizabeth from her fiancé, who signs off: "I hope as I Live never to become so dangerously infatuated with the mysteries of existence as was the unfortunate M. Meinster."
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